We start off this edition with what might be a little light at the end of a tunnel:
GOP Senate Challengers Emerge To Take On Harriet Hageman In Primary
I'll note that the LinkedIn article is the first really good article on Skovgard's views that I've seen. Personally, I'm favoring Mead.
And something to remember:
Hageman's Senate Run Reignites Criticisms Over Public Lands
And then there's this:
Wyoming Republican Party plans to buck law and endorse candidates ahead of critical primary
The GOP is really playing with fire here. It's correct that as a private organization the government shouldn't tell it who it can and cannot endorse. But then, the laws of the state shouldn't give a preferential position to a private organization, let alone a political party. As a "major party" it has a role in nominating replacement for some positions and has pride of place in primaries. When challenged in court, and it could be, this might be the first step towards an open primary in Wyoming. That is, one with no parties noted at all.
In other races, the amount of money being violently hurled by Chuck Gray and Reid Rasner at the House race is simply nuts. Weekly flyers now arrive, printed obviously by the same company, by both candidates, and television ads appear constantly. Frankly Rasner's television ads are a little better than Gray's, the latter of which basically amount to a swooning expression of love, albeit by a man who comes across as so angry its unhinged, and absolute fealty to Donald Trump. Rasner has, in my view, less than zero chance of winning the seat, but if he has any success at all it will be due to his media blitz. At any rate, both campaigns are largely self funded, which gives rise to the "well, it's their money" comment. None the less, the expenditure of this sort of money is obscene and is reason enough that neither man should win office . . . any office.
The Star Tribune ran an article about the Democratic candidate taking on Art Washut, one of the best members of the Wyoming legislature. Stewart McAdoo turns out to be a South Carolinian, so we'd put him in the carpetbagger category, and he's running on the predictable Democratic seas of blood support of infanticide.
April 30, 2026
Protect Wyoming ran an ad this morning in the Tribune against Bill Allemand.
Hunters and fishermen should really oppose Allemand, who following the corner crossing ruling of the Federal Court sponsored a Draconian bill on hunting trespassing. While he claims no present interest in it, he's from a well known Powder River Basin Wyoming ranching family, a region of the state that features very limited land access. He's fighting a charge for drunk driving in Johnson County presently.
He's being challenged by Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer, who got cross wise in a Bar Nunn town council meeting according to news reports. Allemand quixotically adamantly opposed a proposed nuclear generator project north of the small Natrona County Casper bedroom community. The WFC seemed to align with that opposition, showing it thinks so little that its only concept of the energy industry is grounded in fossil fuels.
Democrat Keenan Morgan is also running against Allemand. Morgan and Boyer are from Bar Nunn, Allemand from Midwest. The district covers a large amount of territory but uniquely features three small towns, Midwest, Edgerton and Bar Nunn, with Bar Nunn being by far the largest of the three. House District 58 also includes a sliver of Casper and the large unincorporated area north of Highway 20/26 in Natrona County.
It'll be interesting to see how Allemand, who has a semi uncontrollable temper, reacts Protect Wyoming's advertisement.
May 1, 2026
Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the race for the Democratic Senate ticket. A popular Governor, she was being upstaged by Graham Platner for the bid to replace 72 year old Susan Collins. Mills is 77 years old, so the race shows the steadfast refusal of Boomers to know when the heck to get out and let the young have a place.
Platner is an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran who is a tender 41 years old, an age that would have been regarded as far from young in any era but the current one. As an oyster farmer from Maine this race is showing the interesting rise of some strong agrarian interests on the coasts, with Mary Peltola of Alaska, a Blue Dog Democrat, campaigning on the following:
It's Simple:
The fight for
Fish, Family, Freedom
depends on fixing the rigged system in DC
May 2, 2026
Teacher Brian Costello has announced his bid for House District 37, currently held by Steve Harshman who is running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Harshman is also a teacher. He will be running against far right wing gadfly Ross Schriftman and Democrat Betsy Erickson.
Schrifman is a Wyoming native.
Conicidentaly Protect Wyoming ran an add on Harshman in today's Tribune:
In House District 57 Luc Colgrove announced a bid for the seat occupied by Julie Jarvis and formerly occupied by Carpetbagger Jeanette Ward, who is trying to get the seat back.
Democrats are not OK with Boomers
Perhaps having learned their lesson with Joe Biden, the party’s voters are starting to reject older, establishment-bound candidates.
May 4, 2026
Democratic candidates announce legislative, county seat bids
All four Democratic state lawmakers will seek reelection. Democrats also have candidates for both commission seats, sheriff, county clerk and more.
Elsewhere I read an interview of Provenza. Like me, she's been in both major parties, and has been an independent.
May 5, 2026
Statewide candidates split on Wyoming GOP’s plans to defy state law and make endorsements
Some agree with the party’s decision and will seek out an endorsement. Others oppose a political party breaking election law.
This stands a pretty good chance of being the political equivalent of pulling the pin on a live grenade and then dropping it in your own foxhole. There's a really good argument there that could lead to the state Supreme Court simply wiping out party dependent primaries under Wyoming's law, and creating a judicially mandated open primary.
Indeed, I hope that happens.
Part of what's amusing here is that Chuck Gray and Reid Rasner, both of whom assert their undying love for Trump whenever possible, are on opposite sides of this issue with Rasner claiming the "establishment" is trying to stop him. Politicians are big on opposing "the establishment". Gray likes the new provisions, Rasner does not, probably because Gray is bargaining on the WFC to endorse him with the Confederate Seal of Approval. Gray was an original WFC Cornfederate, so Rasner is probably correct here that the "establishment" is trying to stop him, if the WFC is the establishment, which of course they'll deny that they are.
Ballow is frank she's opposed. She's been pretty quiet up until recently, but there's a good chance that she will secure the nomination.
May 6, 2026
Trump backed sycophants did well in Indiana where Trump intervened to punish Republicans who didn't vote for redistricting. The result will help march the GOP right off the cliff its headed towards in theall.
This shows the extent to which the GOP is actually dead, replaced by a group of worshippers who follows the words of their leader, rather than reality.
In contrast, Democrats won big in special elections.
And we have this:
Yes, they are. They're frankly really irritating.
May 7, 2026
Elissa Campbell is running for reelection in Wyoming House District 56.
Weston County Commissioners Reject GOP Picks To Replace Hadlock As County Clerk
The current system, it might be noted, required the party of the outgoing clerk to nominate three choices, and if the Commissioners can't pick one, the district court judge does from the outgoing person's party. The GOP's recently fit over complying with state law raises the question of whether this is constitutional. It likely isn't.
May 8, 2026
Oh my.
Rasner is now attacking Gray with a radio ad in which he calls him "China Chuck Gray".
Reid Rasner Launches Attack Ad With Chinese Music, Gong and Ninja 'Hoi!’ Grunts’
I think the best response to that was Legislator Michael Yin's; "“I think Rasner’s campaign is a joke, so I don’t take anything he runs very seriously,”
Yin is right. Rasner is spending money like crazy, but the primary beneficiary of it might be Gray, as the two "I love Trump more than Trump loves Trump" candidates are sucking so much air out of the room that even Steve Megabucks Freiss can hardly get in a word in about how he loves Trump, and Reagan.
Gray, for his part, has referred to Rasner as "Mr. Kronberg-Rasner” which appeared to baffle the Cowboy State Daily but which is pretty clearly a reference to Josh Kronberg-Rasner who must wonder what the heck he did to deserve this. Apparently Gray figures that people will do some independent research on Kronberg and accordingly learn that Reid Rasner and Josh Kronberg were at one time married. If you dig into that, you can learn that, as in this obituary of well known Casper businesman Darrell Decker:
Darrell was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Billie Jean Decker. He is survived by his two daughters, Darlyn Decker McIntosh and Deborah (Debbie) Ann Decker, both of Casper, WY; four grandchildren Ryan Decker Rasner, Reid Rasner and his husband Josh Kronberg-Rasner, Darbi (Rasner) Westman and her husband Andy, and Zack Gentzlinger; and two great-grand children, Damion and Mason.
The interesting thing about that, of course, is that is Gray's backhanded way of trying to point out that Rasner is a homosexual, hoping that people won't cast votes for his vociferous opponent for that reason.
Of course that brings up the question of why Gray, age 36, is unmarried. I've not seen anything suggesting he's a homosexual (although Rasner admittedly is and there isn't that much public knowledge on it), but it's hard not wonder why the super conservative, family values, party has figures who don't fit that mold. Gray isn't married, Rasner is a homosexual, Hageman has no children of her own. . . *
Well, anyhow. The ad is frankly slimy. Rasner never had any chance in the first place, so violently hurling money in this fashion is really a waste.
Chuck also said the following:
Mr. Kronberg-Rasner sues others for defamation, while he’s the one who is actually lying. Mr. Kronberg-Rasner accuses others of what he’s actually doing, just like leftwing insider politicians like Liz Cheney.
That really didn't make any sense, quite frankly, as Rasner has been suing people for defamation. I guess he's saying that Rasner is defaming him, which is a huge stretch. The irony is that Gray built his entire campaign on the lie of the election being stolen and screams like a weenie every time anyone says anything about him. He did so again here, accusing Liz Cheney, who was clearly a conservative, of being a "leftwing insider". She may have been an insider, but she sure wasn't left wing.
Normally, of course, Chuck is attacking people in the middle. If he ordered lukewarm coffee and the waitress brings hot, she'd get accused of being a left wing radical. This is the first time that he's been attacked from the right and he doesn't really know what to do. It's clear he'd like to come out and say, "yeah . . .well Reid you're a homosexual", but he's clearly afraid to
Ideally, and the ideal really tends not to happen, the Gray/Rasner fight will take them both down and into political oblivion. Their campaigns are self funded for the most part, so the longer this goes on the more of their own cash they're draining. Wyomingites would be well served if they drained all of their reserves, Balow won the race, and Chuck went on to a McDonald's job in Los Angeles and Rasner went back to doing whatever he was doing before.
Footnotes
*Gray accidentally raises an interesting point here. Does supporting homosexual marriage, which I do not, make you liberal by default? It's hard to see how supporting something so fundamentally non traditional would not, in fact, put you in the far left no matter what else you might believe. Of course, maybe Rasner has reformed. People sometimes do.
Politicians with same sex attraction wouldn't normally be expected to reveal it, of course, but some just do. Keeping it closeted while being a right wing Republican, and I'm not accusing anyone of that here, is hypocritical, however.
Of course, the GOP is hypocritical on this in general. In his first successful campaign Trump suggested that same sex marriage would be reversed. It hasn't been, but then right now its stare decisis that its legal. Still, Scott Bessant is an open homosexual in a same sex marriage which, if you really believed what you professed, would raise questions, I guess.
Likewise, flat out avoiding having children isn't very traditional, and from an Apostolic Christian point of view, doing that chemically or artificially is flat out immoral. This is tricker, however, as some people can't have children. Usually you don't know what people's circumstances are, and its impolite to ask, unless their political persona has interjected it.
Finally, all the talk about relationships between men and women and tradition, it's pretty clear that Republicans don't have a problem with Trump having a string of bedmates in prior days. At one time even being divorced was beyond the pale for a Republican President. Now they can have a pre office moral history rivaling that of an alley cat. If the Republicans really meant what they preach (and in fairness, some in the Heritage Society have taken this view), they'd be doing something about no fault divorce.
But then, that'd be contrary to the American Civil Religion, which holds you can pretty much do anything you want in this category, as long as its with the opposite sex.
Related threads:
Pollice Verso. The 2026 Political Negative Endorsement. The Don't Vote For List.
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